Monthly Archives: February 2012

Falling in love. I guess that’s what it feels like, not that I know what love really is, or what falling in love feels like, but if I had to say, this is pretty much it.

Andrew Bayer is a magician of sorts, and he seems to have direct access to my musical tastes. Even his remixes get to me (i.e. Alquimia). I’ve always been a support of music as a religion, music as a replacement for love, music as inspiration, but without tasting the sweetness of these melodies, I spoke in ignorance. I believe I was right, but it was for the wrong reasons. His music affects me in a way that’s different from the music of most trance artists. There’s a deeper connection that I feel with a limited number of songs from Anjunabeats and Armada etc. etc. (so sue me for listening to the more “mainstream” trance labels …), a few from Mat Zo, Matt Lange and Arnej, but this connection is more consistent with Andrew Bayer’s tracks.

And this new track, You, featured in the upcoming Anjunadeep 04, just killed me as soon as I heard it. There’s nothing too extravagant about Andrew’s songs, which is what I love. There are so many subtleties in all of his tracks that give them so much more depth and character, they are so moving, so intense without being in your face with what the song sounds like, if that makes any sense.

On the same subject, Anjunadeep has always been amazing. It has an addictive, unique sound that is exactly what it advertises: deep.

This has been a brief but not too brief expression of my love of Andrew Bayer’s music (and Anjunadeep, by extension). It just feels wrong to have such strong emotions inside of me and not express them (which is why it’s probably a good thing I’m in Arts and not Sciences). Music is very subjective, and by expressing my taste I do not mean to impose an opinion of Andrew Bayer’s music upon anyone or that he should be greater than any other producer because I think so, only that I am grateful that I have found something that I love so much.

I guess these kinds of posts are more selfish than they appear (aside from promoting Andrew Bayer and Anjunadeep) but I hope to anyone reading this that they also have something in their lives that makes them feel so in love.

This movie review is far past overdue, six years past, to be exact, so any spoiler warning might be useless, but I’ll give one nonetheless.

To my recollection there was never a very big deal made of this movie, because I was never moved to watch it when it came out. I should’ve known then that the Wachowski brothers had something to do with the movie, and it should’ve matter to me, but it didn’t. I should’ve listened to a friend, who urged that I watch it, because although he is narrow-minded and knows little about me and my movie preferences, he does have good taste. I was probably ignorant at the time, as we all appear to be in hindsight, but if I had watched this movie then, I wouldn’t have had the same insight to write this review now.

V for Vendetta is a little more political than I would like my movies to be. Politics don’t interest me, I don’t vote, I don’t read the papers–it is my least favourite part of history. But politics isn’t the only thing I see in this movie. V is a superhero, made of his past experiences or pain and anguish, he is the Beast to Evey’s Beauty, he is anonymous, “he [is] you, and me, and all of us”. When he first appeared on screen, I felt sad, because I knew he would die, not because it was predictable, but because of what he represented. I knew it because of his strong convictions, his brilliance, and his madness.

I knew it was a good movie in the first few minutes of it. I had the feeling that tells you “This is a good movie! Pay close attention!” This movie is beyond simple entertainment, like perhaps Zombieland was, my gut told me, and I believed it. This feeling between tears and joy, some sort of painful euphoria of having experienced something great, and regretting only that it is over, that is what movie magic is, and I am saying right after I’ve watched it, just like I wrote the review for Night Circus right after I’ve read it. This way I am free of second guesses, and re-interpretations. I have no biases, no interference, no one to tell me of its flaws, no one to disagree with me, no one to explain why I am stupid for having enjoyed it. I must live this moment of happiness before I can allow it to be dissected. And I would like to point out that I have never been more attracted to Hugo Weaving’s voice, and at the same time I see how important it was not to see the face behind the mask, because of what the anonymity represents.

The only thing I didn’t agree with was Natalie Portman’s British accent. Other than that I am glad to add it to the list of movies I would watch again and again, not only because I enjoyed it so much the first time around, but that I have faith enough in the Wachowski brothers to know that I will find new things in it every time I do watch it again.

I will remind myself, as I always remind myself after I have decided I have experienced something of great value to me, that nothing is perfect. I don’t expect this movie to be without flaws, but I also assume the same of the people who critique it, and who critique all things in general, because they are human, even though they might not like to believe that they should suffer the same weaknesses.

I should also add that to make real commentaries on the movie, I probably should read the original graphic novels as well.